The Formula 1 world is witnessing "possibly the best ever" fight for the world championship in 2018.
That is the claim of former McLaren and Red Bull driver David Coulthard.
"This season we have one of the best title bouts in a long time and possibly the best ever. It will go down in history.
Lewis (Hamilton) and Sebastian (Vettel) are not just extremely fast and focused but completely different characters. And in Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen they have two good teammates who do not necessarily play the water carrier," the Scot added.
Coulthard, who is now British F1 broadcaster, played down high profile errors made recently by Ferrari's Vettel, including his crash at Hockenheim.
"In the end it will be the strengths that are the decisive factor, not the weaknesses.
It's because of their strengths that they're in the lead. Only after Abu Dhabi should we tally up who made the most mistakes and how many points he lost. Not before," Coulthard added.
He compared the German to F1 legend Michael Schumacher, and said Hamilton is commonly misunderstood as being overly aggressive.
"He does not like trouble, actually.
After Baku last year, for example, he wanted talks between men to clear things up with Vettel. Sebastian is similar, but he's a family man and very mature.
I think they respect each other on a sporting level, although they're too different to be friends," Coulthard said.
